


Youth Is Wasted

by LunarLullabies



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: One Shot Collection, imagine these as stories orpheus tells after the events of the show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2020-06-23 18:43:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19707244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunarLullabies/pseuds/LunarLullabies
Summary: A compilation of one shots all based/written around the songs on Reeve Carney's album "Youth Is Wasted."





	1. Looking Glass

**Author's Note:**

> The similarities and differences in the King and Poet, and how they handle their lover's absence.
> 
> (I really hope this format makes sense, with this song especially with the jumping POVs)

**He's proud, proud of what he's done**

Hades remembered the boy falling to his knees in desperation. Remembered seeing him slowly stand and walk away after finally realizing that the one he loved was gone forever.

**Of whom he's become, too proud to care**

He’s king. King of the Underworld, of the dead. King of the girl pulled from the world above for the last time and all the other souls like her. He had power, control, stability - everything that those up top wished they could have.

So why was he alone?

**Hanging around like the nose on a clown**

Springtime. When his wife was gone, Hades was alone. What is a King without his Queen by his side?

**He's ashamed to be found in the state he's in**

Six months of the year, he walks through Hadestown alone. She’s in the living world, and he waits until fall so they can try again.

**Oh, how he longs to believe he'll be strong**

When they were last seen together, he had been a ruthless leader. She brought back the good in him, and a young poet brought back the life in the God of the dead. Hades still saw the songbird slave away. Only a few weeks had passed and the pain should still be raw, work should still prove unbearable when the melody still lingered in the air. But she looked vacantly on and pushed through her work. Hades for a moment lets himself imagine their suffering. Six months without his wife makes the Underworld feel like Hell. What must an eternity without your lover be like when happiness was just within reach? Perhaps Hades did understand.

**Long after** **_he's_ ** **gone away**

**You're fading far too fast**

The old god missed his wife, his _ goddess _ , more than any other Spring before it. Who is he without her beside him, now that his heart had been softened?

**Faster than December**

Spring was an eternity to him despite being a fleeting gust of wind for those above. Winter passed by his eyes while those up top tried to count down the days just as they counted the items in their pantry.

**Faithful looking glass**

How does a man continue on without his wife? When memories of her smile, of her voice are the only thing you have to hold on to?

**Help me to remember**

_ La la la la la la la _

_ ~ _

**I always act a fool**

Orpheus turned around.

**Never thinking much about the things I do until I'm through**

.To have come so close and still lose everything… How does it happen? Orpheus was young and naïve, a scared child being watched by a king. It wasn’t until he was staring his wife in the eyes that he knew what he had done.

**Like a little dog lapping at the floor**

He was desperate. Desperation will drive a man mad. But that doesn’t help and begging with the gods for another chance won’t make it so.

**So my life goes the way it did before**

The poet walked home.

**Lord, my oh my what a shame to deny**

His muse was gone. He had sat on the ground where he turned for so long, praying for it not to be true. But Orpheus had to face the facts.

**Everything that's aligned with your ways**

Hades is a king. What he owes, he will find a way to keep. His power, his authority, his contracts and deals. The boy never stood a chance. A god could never understand losing a lover, of being so alone.

**I'm listening, but my heart's next of kin**

He moved on. Tried to at least. Orpheus walked, following the drumming of his feet upon the ground, songs for his lover dripping from his lips like honey.

**To that same deceiver of old**

__

**You're fading far too fast**

He wasn’t the same boy anymore. He was growing up, growing past what happened. He missed her every day, he always would. But pain is alleviated by the knowledge that one day he would see her again.

**Faster than December**

Had it really been another year already?

**Faithful looking glass**

He refused to forget a single part of her. Her smile, or her voice. Even when he doubted himself, he always knew how to keep her with him.

**Help me to remember**

_ La la la la la la la _

_ ~ _

**Help me turn away**

Spring and summer got blocked from his mind. Forget her when she’s gone, it hides the pain.

**Cause I'll be here to stay**

Every year he remained below and occupied himself while she was gone.

**Unless I find a way to remember**

How do you continue to love a woman you barely get to see?

_ ~ _

**You're fading far too fast**

He got old.

**Faster than December**

It was a lonely life, but it was a good one. It remained full of song, full of love. It’s easier when you know what, _who_ , is waiting.

**Faithful looking glass**

He stepped off the train, and she was there, just as beautiful as he remembered, and she didn’t seem to mind that he had gained a few wrinkles. Her hand still fit perfectly in his, and that was what mattered.

**Help me to remember**

“Come home with me.”

They could finally see each other every day for the rest of eternity. They would never have to wait anymore.


	2. Don't Forget To Say "I Love You"

Since his return from Hadestown, people have stared at Orpheus. At the boy who went to hell and back for the person he loved. They had watched him with her, had seen the smile and laugh.

He didn’t do that anymore.

Instead he made himself busy. He didn’t waste his time playing music anymore - what was the point? The world was back in tune and his muse was lost. So, Orpheus worked. He worked in the bar, as a carpenter, a stock boy. He took what he could and kept to himself. He didn’t care much for people anymore, especially not their prying eyes and pitiful whispering. But despite this, Orpheus wasn’t a spiteful or cruel person. Everyone thought he had all the right to be, but he couldn’t do it. He would cry and beat himself up over his lover, but that was nobody’s fault but his.

Years passed. Orpheus was as close to being himself again as he could be, but he still never sang. Never spoke of the gods or the girl he once knew. And nobody ever asked about her, until one day.

“Mr.Orpheus!” A young boy ran up to him. Orpheus was a legend, a hero for children to aspire to be. The great brave poet who returned the seasons, stood up to Hades, and understood true love.

“Mr.Orpheus,” the boy began again. “I’m sorry about what happened. What was her name?”

And just like that, someone had asked about his fateful journey for the first time since his solo return. Orpheus smiled and spoke the name he had always been too angry to say.

“Eurydice.”

_ Her name is still a melody. _

Her name drifted through the air and swelled in his ears with a crescendo. It left a sweetness on his tongue and a crushing ache in his heart.

“She was my songbird.”

The little boy smiled , proud to have finally cracked the former poet’s tragic silence.

“Thank you.” The boy turned to go.

“Wait. Don’t thank me yet, let me tell you something first.” Orpheus knelt on the ground to look the child in the eyes. “Don’t forget to say ‘I love you’ every time you go, because you never know how much is left. I forgot to say ‘I love you’ and how I regret that she never knew how much I did.” Orpheus stood and quickly wiped the tears from his eyes. When he looked back, the boy was running off, but he stopped for a moment and turned back to the man.

“I think she knows.” And he was gone. As Orpheus turned to leave, he heard a faint whistle and saw a glimpse of canary yellow flash by. He turned his gaze to follow it and watched the bird rest in a patch of flowers.

Orpheus smiled.


End file.
